Your Social Media Plans Must Include Customer Service Reps.
I was challenged recently to think about customer service representatives as part of an organization’s social media response and tracking team. I had never thought of using customer service reps to keep tabs on blogs, Google Alerts, and any other social media that may be talking about an organization but it really makes sense. After all, customer service reps serve as a front line for companies already and they know the ins and outs of the company about as well as anyone, so why not pull a rep or two aside for social media monitoring?
What if a company started allowing its customer service reps (or any other employees for that matter) to be proactive in engaging prosumers? Why not monitor and respond to complaints voiced in Twitter? Why not leave a comment of thanks from a blog post that had something nice to say about your product or service or company? Why not leave a video response to a YouTube video that discussed your product? Why not join a social network group or entire social network that was dedicated for (or against) your organization? Why not have your reps start a blog on the company website?
The new world of customer service is going to be proactive engagement unlike what the average customer service representative is paid to do today. It’s going to require as much trust from the company as they have in their reps now but with more freedom. It’s going require the legal department relaxing just a bit. It’s going to require the marketing department working closer with the customer service department. It’s going to require customer service being a part of your social media training. It’s going to require rethinking the roles of marketing, public relations, and customer service. Perhaps a “customer relations department” is more in order. Whatever it may be, it’s going to change
Tags: customer service, new media marketing, social media marketing, twitter
June 3rd, 2008 at 8:52 pm
Bill, you hit the nail on the head with this post. Totally agree with your thinking. In fact we’ve begun calling the whole concept for corporations “answering the social phone”. Some great examples of this are the folks at Dell and Zappos, among others. We’ve also adopted this holistic philosophy at Radian6 as well, using our own social media monitoring platform at the core of listening and analysis. (That’s actually how I knew about your post btw
It’s certainly the way things are going and I think you’ll see more and more corporations start to look at things this way. We are already starting to see it with the customers we work with.
Great thinking Bill. Hope to see more on this.
Cheers.
David Alston
Radian6
June 4th, 2008 at 8:25 am
David, thanks for the feedback. I like the idea of answering the social phone. That really sums it all up.
June 16th, 2008 at 8:06 am
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